Geology Presented in Collections of Papers from the Published Literature

Summary

The volume of geological literature is so great that readers urgently need ways to identify manageable amounts of material possibly useful for different purposes. Titles, abstracts, and indexes provide awareness of quantities of literature, but on the whole offer limited assistance in discerning quality. Review papers by subject specialists are more helpful guides to literature worth examining. For direct access to significant literature from scattered sources, organized collections of reprints now play an important role. The scientist-editors of such collections relieve readers of the burdens of searching through and evaluating large masses of literature, and often also of dealing with language barriers. The selections necessarily reflect judgments of the editors, but are influenced by recommendations of fellow scientists consulted. Some collections are planned as volumes in series that will display the historical development of the science as a whole in a relatively compact form. The value of such reprint collections to libraries and reference librarians requires no explanation.